Park Day Part 1 For me at least. AKA Will all the kids make it?
Today we were headed to the parks. The plan is for all of us to start out together and head to the Animal Kingdom. Mickey was set to wake us at 7:00. They had orders to be at the bus stop by 7:45 so we can make opening at 9:00. I was going to give them until 8:00 before I grabbed a bus and went to the park.
I was up at a little before six so I went out on MY balcony to watch the resort come to life. I really like this time of day here. Well, night is also pretty cool. Delivery vehicles are moving around dropping off supplies and merchandise, walkers and joggers are starting their trek around the Boardwalk and the sun is coming up. Ahh, the anticipation of a new day at Disney.
Yacht/Beach
Boardwalk
This CM has a cool job tooling around the lake/lagoon/pond. What the heck is the name of it? I should know.
Now let the games begin. I phoned DD to get her started a little before Mickey called. Couple more calls to finally get them stirring. 5 was down early because she needed to go to the van to get her wallet. Geesh. We go out to the car and see an Animal Kingdom bus pull up. Not going to make that one. Sent 5 back to the room to put her wallet and the car keys away. By now, DD was not answering her phone so I called 1. Told them in no uncertain terms that if another AK bus pulls up, I am on it even if they are not. Meet you at Hollywood Studios for lunch.
A few minutes later an AK bus turns the corner and I phone 1 again, The bus is here. She screams, No, dont go. We are in the lobby. After everyone already waiting gets on, I see the first of the kids running to the stop. I told the bus driver we had runners coming and believe it or not, they made it.
Their plan was to do AK, meet me for lunch at the Studios, then head over to EPCOT, and finally make to the MK till park closing at 2 am.
Dont think 3 is going to make it to 2 am.
We made it to the park before opening. DD, 1, (maybe 2) and I got through security and made it to the gate relatively quickly. The rest lagged behind. That would be frustrating if I was with them the whole day. We had a game plan. DD and 1 would take the right side and head briskly without running to grab the FPs for our trip to the Himalayas while the rest of us would wait for them at Safari.
Here is the opening ceremony
Waiting for our side to let us through
The rope is dropped and we are off on our separate missions.
The tree.
We get to safari and a chorus of, Im hungry starts. I point out to them that there was a lot of grab and go breakfast stuff at the room. Since they took forever to get up and had to sprint to the bus stop without getting something to eat, they were on their own. There was a fruit stand but of course they head to the pastry one. I grab something for DD and 1. It is taking a while for those two to show up. A couple of kids call and we hear they are on their way. It took them a while longer for them to appear but you figure Everest FP can be a madhouse at opening. We enter the line with a 20 minute wait listed.
OK, here is the true story. A few days after we get back, DD and I am driving home from school and DD says, You might get a little mad at me. WHAT? Well, when the rope dropped, they walked briskly without running to the FP machines. They were the first one there! They both play soccer and run track so some jogging might have been involved.
Once they get the Fastpasses, their mission was accomplished and they start heading over to Safari. Unfortunately, they had to pass the queue to Everest on the way to meet us and there was no one in line. They decide why not? They could have gone on the first train but they wanted to ride up front so they waited for the second one.
In the car she asked if I was mad at her. My response: What were you thinking? There was no one in line for EVEREST and you thought for one second I would be mad that you took advantage of it? There comes times at Disney when you must abandon the herd and it is every one for them self. I would have done the same thing. Chip off the old block.
So things are good. The selfish ones are demolishing their pastry and the line starts moving OK. Then I notice I do not hear any vehicles running. The line stops dead and we are barely into the queue. After a while we hear an announcement that the wildebeests are migrating across the Serengeti and it will be a short wait. It turned out to be about 35-40 minutes before we finally were ready to board.
Waiting in line
Here comes our bus
Various parings for our two week safari into the jungle
I thought I may lose one two here but they did not fall for the, Go pet them, they are tame routine.
Am not posting a lot of pics so we can get to Everest part of the trip. Is this elephant purposely shunning the paparazzi?
I actually heard him roar one time. Impressive.
The shutterbug took a lot of tilted pics like this
After the elephant formally known as Little Red was saved, we headed to use our Everest FPs. Good amount of animals out and the kids seemed to enjoy it.
They stopped to play the drums
And I made them pose for a picture
At Everest
Here we go
Everest was a blast as usual. Thumbs up from everyone. For a few of the kids it was the first time on the ride. It is always nice to have rookies with you.
Out of picture space so that is it for now. Up next, what they did and what I did. And maybe what we did.